assassin posts

Angels Online expansion introduces new class

by Rubi Bayer Dec 8th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Expansions, News items, Free-to-play, Angels Online

Angels Online, the free-to-play MMO from IGG.com, has released its latest expansion and with it a new class for players to enjoy.

The Assassin Alliance in Eden has been in hiding, but with the new expansion comes the Floating Island, the place that appears to have served as a shelter for the alliance. With its appearance, the Assassins are pushed into the spotlight and have become an available player class: "With the Evil Lyceum gaining in power, the fate of the holy land in danger, the Assassin Alliance was forced to come out of hiding and confront the rising power of evil."

The assassin's strengths, weaknesses, and attributes are going to be familiar to most MMO players, so they'll be a welcome addition to the game. Assassins in Angels Online are quick, sneaky, and deadly with a pair of daggers. They enjoy some pretty devastating class-specific skills such as "Shadow Blade", "Avatar" and "Assault", as well as the highest agility in the game and the ability to enhance their weapons with debuffs.

More information on the new class is available at Angels Online.

Tags: angels-online, assassin, classes, expansion, igg.com

Perfect World International gets a brand new expansion pack, "Rising Tide"

by Seraphina Brennan Nov 23rd 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Perfect World, Expansions, Patches, News items

If you're a Perfect World International player, then it's time to visit the seas and flirt with mermaids! The game has recently unveiled their next expansion, Rising Tide, and it's set to unlock the mysteries of the depths. But who needs mystery when you're getting a brand new race and public quests?

As the seas of the game have become corrupted by dark forces, the remaining members of the newest player race, the Tideborn, have turned to the land to request assistance in their fight. Tideborn players will find themselves accessing two new classes -- the Assassin and the Psychic -- to utilize in their fight against the darkness. (Yes, we hear you snickering, Dead Alewives fans.)

Tags: assassin, expansion, free-to-play, patch, perfect-world, perfect-world-entertainment, perfect-world-international, psychic, rising-tide, tideborn

A retrospective of Aion's first month (part 2)

by Brooke Pilley Oct 26th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Opinion, Massively Hands-on

Tags: aion, asmodian, assassin, first-month, hands-on, impressions, nc-west, ncsoft, opinion

Aion Abyss rankings show assassins like it on top (Korean)

by Brooke Pilley Sep 5th 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Classes, News items

We stumbled upon this interesting Aion chart that shows off the current Abyss rankings on the top five Korean servers. There are a few things you should know before drawing any absolute conclusions. First, the list only ranks players by their total Abyss Points (AP) and doesn't factor in many of the variables associated with AP gain (e.g., solo, group, PvE, PvP, exploit, etc.). Also, it doesn't necessarily reflect class imbalance issues (power or population), but we're sure that's the conclusion most people will jump to.

After tallying up the class numbers, you can see that Assassins seem to be dominating the Abyss rankings, while Spiritmasters are at the bottom. Of the top 100, 48 are Assassins and 2 are Spiritmasters. With three classes tied for second and a few others not far behind, at least that seems quite balanced in terms of class spread. Exploitation is also mentioned in this thread and there appears to be one blatant case of it in the rankings (i.e., the level 30 Ranger with the top rank for his server). PvP games inevitably result in lists like this and it will be interesting to see how things pan out on the North American servers when Aion launches later this month.

Want to know more about Aion? NCsoft invites you into the world of Atreia where the Elyos and the Asmodians fight each other and the evil Balaur for control of the shattered planet. Check out out all our coverage of this highly anticipated MMO!

Tags: abyss, aion, aion-korea, assassin, korea, nc-west, ncsoft, pvp-rank, ranger, rvr, spiritmaster

Guild Wars' August update targets underpowered skills

by William Dobson Aug 8th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Classes, Game mechanics, Patches

While there wasn't a proper skills update last month in Guild Wars, the one prior to that did a lot to improve underpowered skills for the Ritualist and Paragon professions. For August's update, which is now live, the Arenanet dev team opted to continue their assault on weak abilities. Some of the more significant changes made were:

Assassins have had their area-of-effect damage options increased
Improvements were made to Rangers pets (for PvE only)
Dervishes had their survivability improved somewhat
The Elementalists Air Magic line was made more useful for PvE, and Earth Magic was given more offense options for PvP

Check out the latest Guild Wars Developer Update to get all the details on August's PvE and PvP balances, or see the patch notes in their entirety here.

Tags: air-magic, arenanet, assassin, balancing, dervish, developer-update, earth-magic, elementalist, guild-wars, gw, patches, ranger, ranger-pets

What are SWTOR's three final classes? part 2

by Kyle Horner Jul 30th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: New titles, Opinion, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Tags: assassin, bioware, droid, ea, electronic-arts, empire, jedi, lucasarts, opinion, republic, sith, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-old-republic

Delving into the archetypes and specialty classes of Aion

by Brooke Pilley Jun 27th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Classes, News items

The folks over at Ten Ton Hammer have been cranking out a number of features that examine the various class archetypes and specialty classes of Aion. So far, they've produced two game guides showcasing the Priest and Mage archetypes and had four interviews with NCsoft discussing the Gladiator, Templar, Ranger, and Assassin specialty classes.

When creating a character in Aion, you must initially choose one of four available archetypes. Anyone who has played a fantasy MMO or RPG in the past decade or so will find them quite familiar. They are the Warrior, Scout, Priest, and Mage.

Once you reach level 9, you're sent on a quest to discover your true identity and ascend to daevahood. The quest is like Red Bull - it gives you wings. At this point you must choose a specialty class defined by your original archetype. Warriors become Gladiators or Templars. Scouts become Rangers or Assassins. Priests become Clerics or Chanters. Mages become Sorcerers(esses) or Spiritmasters.

By our count, TTH has covered half the archetypes and specialty classes so far, so keep your eyes peeled for the second half coming soon. We'll also bring you our own impressions of these classes when beta permits. So far, we've been limited to testing some pretty low level characters.

Tags: aion, assassin, chanter, class-guide, cleric, gladiator, mage, ncsoft, priest, ranger, scout, sorcerer, spiritmaster, templar, ten-ton-hammer, warrior

Warrior Epic goes into closed beta... again

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 5th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Free-to-play, Warrior Epic

The Possibility Space powered MMO Warrior Epic is about to open the doors to their closed beta later this month, offering players to visit their website and press the register button to apply for a chance to play the game.

And if anyone's deja vu sensors are going off, you are indeed correct -- this is Warrior Epic's second closed beta. The change is the addition True Games Interactive, the brand new publisher backing Warrior Epic. The game has seen some changes since we last looked at it, like the removal of the Dreadnought and Vanisher classes, the addition of an Archer, and some name changing for the old Zambrano. Although, the Dreadnought's face is still lurking on the website (he's the background), so perhaps our tanky friend is just waiting in the wings for some action.

The free-to-play title is also sporting a brand new eye-candy filled website, featuring new screenshots, concept art, and desktop backgrounds for the Warrior Epic faithful. We're interested to see how Warrior Epic has evolved from our first impressions on the game last year, and will be keeping up with any new developments with this title.

Tags: assassin, closed-beta, dreadnought, dungeon-archer, possibility-space, true-games-interactive, vanisher, warrior-epic, zambrano

One Shots: Beware the black cat

by Krystalle Voecks Sep 4th 2008 at 2:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Age of Conan, One Shots

We've seen ninja kittens before, but never Assassin pets! But sure enough, we opened up our mailbox and found this screenshot of Age of Conan sent in to us by Rasos. Attached to the screenshot was the following note: Here's a shot of my assassin, Rasos, in Age of Conan, taking a break on the rooftops of Khemi with his best feline friend. We know it's a bit off the beaten path, but it's certainly very cute!

Do you have a screenshot of your favorite pet? Or perhaps you just happen to have a pet that nobody would expect? Whatever your game, reason, or rationale, we want to see your screenshots! Send them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with a quick note on whatever you'd like to tell us about it.

Gallery: One Shots

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, assassin, funcom, kitten, one-shots, screenshot, screenshots

Age of Conan patch notes for the 17th of July

by William Dobson Jul 17th 2008 at 8:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Bugs, Patches

The next weekly update for Age of Conan has been deployed, and while it's not the PvP patch, there are a number of things to be happy about this time around. Along with the expected patch notes, Funcom decided to post their reasoning behind the bigger changes in the patch, something which they hope to do every week from now on. After the break, we've made a shortlist of some of the more interesting changes, and due to popular demand we've also included the entire patch notes for your perusal.

Tags: 17th-july, age-of-conan, aoc, assassin, barbarian, breaking, combos, demonlogist, funcom, mounts, patch, priest-of-mitra, ranger, tempest-of-set, totem-of-origins, tradepost, travel

Patch notes available for AoC's 10th of July update

by William Dobson Jul 10th 2008 at 10:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Bugs, Classes, Patches, Quests

The next major patch hits Age of Conan's live servers today. The patch notes are lengthy, chocked full of details on all of the quest, item, UI and NPC fixes that made it in. Necromancers, Dark Templars and Heralds of Xotli took the lion's share of class tweaks, although Priests of Mitra, Rangers, Assassins and Barbarians also had some smaller changes.

Female characters received some fixes to the way they swing their weapons, and had their other combat animations corrected. Among the quest amendments, the "Obtaining the Noble Arena Key" fix stands out, hopefully allowing the poor people who could not enter the Arena in the Arsman's Tavern to finally complete their quests.

As good as all of this progress is, we're going to sound like a broken record by mentioning the big PvP update again -- can we pretty please have it next patch? You can take a look at what we do have for now in the full patch notes.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, assassin, barbarian, breaking, dark-templar, funcom, herald-of-xotli, necromancer, obtaining-the-noble-arena-key, patch-notes, priest-of-mitra, pvp

Guild Wars skill update: The nerfing of Shadow Form

by Shawn Schuster Jul 4th 2008 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Forums, Game mechanics, Professions, PvE

The ups and downs of the Assassin skill Shadow Form has been quite the topic of debate lately in Guild Wars. Back in May, the skill had its duration increased which made it the perfect skill for ecto farming builds in the Underworld. The inevitable progression from there evolved into ecto and shard prices dropping dramatically from the over-farming of all the big farm spots. However, in the June 2nd skill update, Shadow Form had quite a change. Now, the caster does 50% less damage while Shadow Form is active on them. Not only that, but the Mindblade Spectres in the Underworld have received Hex Breaker to help combat the hex-based farming builds that have always been so popular in this area.

Now the question is, do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing? Of course, if you're one of the people who farmed ecto with your A/E Chaos Planes farmer, you might not be very excited by this update. We've found that generally, most players do welcome this change though. Not only for the projected rise in ecto prices (making them worth obtaining the old way, and selling on the market again), but also to give a bit of credibility back to the Assassins who enjoyed their class for what it was before they became easy money-makers.

Tags: arenanet, assassin, farming, guild-wars, ncsoft, nerf, shadow-form, skill-balance

Undocumented changes for AoC 26th of June patch

by William Dobson Jun 26th 2008 at 2:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Bugs, Classes, Game mechanics, Patches

In keeping with tradition, Age of Conan players have found some changes that did not make it on to the official patch notes for today's update. The community's findings have been compiled into one handy forum thread, and here are some of the more significant items on the list (although the thread will likely have more added to it later on):

Barbarian talent "Cyclone of Razors" has had its damage lowered from 28% to 10% at 5 points.
Necromancers can no longer send pets to attack while hidden.
Assassin ability "From the Darkness" animation changed and damage after charge reduced by up to 70%.
Rangers mez shot seems to not be working properly.
Dark Templar's magic damage coefficient is bugged.
A bug with casting from your mount, a feature reintroduced today on the official notes. Casters can begin casting a spell while standing still on their mount, and are then free to run around while casting it without interruption, leading to easy kiting.
Still to be verified: Variety of loot from epic Kheshatta bosses increased, and new blues dropping.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, assassin, barbarian, dark-templar, funcom, mount, necromancer, patch, ranger, stealth, stealth-nerf, undocumented

Hands-on in PvP with Age of Conan's mages

by Kyle Horner Apr 22nd 2008 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Age of Conan, New titles, Massively Hands-on

Players interested in running around Age of Conan casting magic left and right will be happy to know that in the world of Hyboria mages are quite impressive.

Some players will be slightly unhappy to hear that there is no straight-up archetypical magic user in AoC. There is no class that basically shoots fireballs while standing around like a glass window just waiting to be shattered into a million little pieces.

That doesn't mean certain classes couldn't be tweaked to play similarly to a more traditional MMO magic caster, but for better or worse you're going to have to use pets when you play a magic class in AoC. Well, unless you're planning on being a Herald of Xolti -- in that scenario you'll be using lots of demonic strength and magic.

Gallery: Age of Conan Mages

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, assassin, barbarian, demonologist, featured, funcom, herald-of-xotli, hox, joystiqfeatures, necromancer, pvp, pvp-weekend

Twelve trails of blood in Age of Conan

by Kyle Horner Apr 7th 2008 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Classes

Over the years of its development cycle Age of Conan has seen a lot of class changes and mergers. After all this time Funcom has settled on providing players with four archetypes that each have three classes to pick from, resulting in a total of 12 classes. Each class in AoC has a specific set of skills, but none are fully pigeonholed into any singular role. We've gone ahead and created an easy-to-navigate list of the archetypes and classes offered. Funcom has released more information for some classes than others, but at this point each one is pretty clear in the role they'll play in Age of Conan come May 20th.

Twelve trails of blood in Age of Conan >>>>>

Gallery: Twelve trails of blood in Age of Conan